Monday, May 17, 2010

Nosey Parker is officially FAMOUS!

I participated in another swap recently. The challenge was to make a mini quilt between 6" x 6" up to 12" x 12", using only black, white and one other color.
Look what came in my mail today- it's Nosey Parker, in a mini quilt! As I'm sure you can imagine, I just love this! A lady named Marilyn, she goes by Spiced Coffee over at Flickr, made this for me. It's so delightful, there's a little 3D butterfly near her ear, a beaded necklace/collar with a green crystal on it, tiny whiskers, beautiful green eyes, and lovely pieced work in a liberated fashion, it's spectacular! All the great black and white and green fabrics are just perfect and put together so well, Marilyn has a real eye and quite the reputation as a fabric or textile artist. She intimidated me quite nicely!
I was just thrilled beyond words, it's so precious! My baby, in fabric, for forever. This is so cool.
I quick put it up on the wall to keep someone from walking across it and getting those beautiful whites dirty! You can see the size here, I think.

I wanted you to be able to see the sweet face, the "chop" piece just cracks me up, it's so lifelike in person, those round little whisker pads, I love them! This is the cutest thing ever and I will treasure it always, thanks so much, Marilyn!
Marilyn likes crows and magpies so I made this for her. "M" is for Magpie.

Neither of us knew that we had each picked green to be our "other color", but we both have green craft rooms, isn't that funny? And we both love nature, cats, birds, bees, etc. And we are both cheaters. She opted to leave her quilt rectangular because it suited the quilt the best (fine by me!) and I cheated by adding a string of colored beads to the quilt to give it some color and because it suited the sneaky nature of a thieving magpie.


This is adapted (verrrrry closely!) to a piece of artwork by Matt Dawson, I cannot take credit for the stylized magpie. The M shape is all me, though! I was in a bit of a time crunch for this swap as we were leaving town for 1/3 of the month, so I cheated a bit and copied this bird and translated it into fabric. I like how it turned out, though and Marilyn likes it, too. Yay. lol

I learned something, too. I learned that I don't know the proper way to bind a sharp inside corner like at the bottom of the M or at the top, where it dips tightly. Good golly, that was tricky and I ended up putting those pretty buttons there to help disguise imperfections. If anyone knows the "real" way to do it, will you please share that with me? Thanks!

15 comments:

Leslie said...

that is quite a quilt.

sallgood said...

Both of you should be so proud of your FUN and wonderful quilts! Way to go girls!

Rafael's Mum said...

THey are both beautiful! Nosey just looks right too! What a lovely quilts!

Millie said...

OUTSTANDING! Both of them!

I did a quilt once with sharp interior corners, and I had a hell of a time binding them. I love the buttons! Awesome, awesome, awesome!

BahamaDawn said...

you have gotten some fabulous quilts in the last couple swaps!!! the cat quilt is outstanding!

Tonya Ricucci said...

both quilts are wonderful, but oooh, I love that little Nosey Parker! that angled photo was excellent to see the detail - love those whiskers!

Susan R said...

Oh my gosh! Both of these are fabulous. Little works of art. You have really outdone yourself with those wonderful swaps! A great way of making treasures for others and of course receiving treasures for yourself! I'm go glad to see little NP on the wall, she is (as you have said) truly famous now!!

Susan

Spiced Coffee said...

It's so much fun to see our little black, white and green quilts here in your blog! This was one of the most fun swaps ever, and I'm so lucky to have gotten you for a partner!

Laura said...

Oh my gosh, both of you ladies made wonderful little quilts! How great that Nosey Parker is now preserved in a quilt forever and not just because her DNA is embedded in the fibers LOL. Smart move putting it up on the wall right away so the kitties couldn't "test" it and leave behind some of the aforementioned DNA.

corsetkitten (aka Erica) said...

That's just marvelous! Nosy in quilt form is almost (but not quite) as adorable as the real thing!

I'm new to quilting but I ran across your blog while looking for ticker tape quilting info--your black/rainbow one is just absolutely inspiring to me!

prashant said...

OUTSTANDING! Both of them!
indian classified site

SUPERQUILTER said...

I love your blog and your tribute to your cat. What fun it must have been and so very clever. By the way he is a beautiful cat.

thequiltlady.blogspot.com
Gale

Unknown said...

I love your blog and your works. I had a cat like yours one, white, when I was a child. hugs from Italy

Mariejos said...

really amazing, I wish I could do such marvelous things, but I'm afraid I'm not patient enough. So I keep looking at yours

Silvia LGD (Little Green Doll) said...

Wow! it's a wonderful miniquilt!